


Mystery Knight

by casterlyqueen



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-20
Updated: 2014-07-20
Packaged: 2018-02-09 15:06:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1987437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/casterlyqueen/pseuds/casterlyqueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU where Cersei learns to be a swordswoman, and competes against her brother. </p>
<p>           "Men will never respect me because I'm smart. Men will respect me because I can kill them. "</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mystery Knight

She had grown up loving the feel of well balanced steel in her hands. She loved the way it rang as metal clashed against metal. She loved the way men looked when she defeated them one after another. 

What Cersei hated were the comparisons to her brother.  _Very good my lady, almost as good as your brother,_ their master of arms would tell her.  _Well struck my lady, almost as good as your brother._ It made Cersei want to scream. In every lesson they had with their maester Cersei learned quicker than Jaime. She was reading faster, writing better, remembering more; she outshone him in there but she could never outshine him out here. It infuriated her. 

It didn’t help that Jaime didn’t understand. “Why does it matter if I’m the better swordsmen? You’re smarter than me.” He would remind her. 

“It just does! I want to be as good as you.”  _Men will never respect me because I’m smart. Men will respect me because I can kill them._ Even at a young age she knew that. 

Jaime didn’t understand, but he did help her train. Jaime always tried to help her when he could, he never looked at her as if she were  _almost_ as good as he were.  _We are the same. Jaime knows that._

They were the same, yet Jaime still left to squire at Crakehall and Cersei went to King’s Landing with her father to be a proper lady at court. She never could understand why they had to be split up. The only thing that consoled her was her father still allowed her to train.  _Next time I see Jaime I will be as good as he is!_ She told herself that every time she picked up a sword. 

—-

Jaime became a knight at fifteen.

Cersei would never become a knight. 

All the same she found a way to bring her brother back to her. Soft whispers and heated kisses, a night of passion and she had convinced him to join the Kingsguard.  

_So we can be together again, we should never have been split apart._ She told herself, though in the back of her mind a voice whispered,  _perhaps now father will make me heir to the rock._ Guilt curled her stomach and she pushed the thought away. No, no she had done this for them, she told herself. She sought Jaime out whenever she had the time. She made love to him, she told herself this was for love so much she forgot she had ever thought of becoming the Warden of the West. 

Jaime got a white cloak, and father resigned as hand of the king taking Cersei home. She didn’t see Jaime again until men called him Kingslayer, and were getting ready to call her Queen. Cersei would have loved being Queen more if it meant she could still  _fight_  like she wanted to. What was the point of power if you couldn’t  _do what you want?_  But no, her father was strict here, Robert would expect her to behave like a lady. She would have to put up her sword for a crown.  _What is the point of being Queen if I cannot do what I wish?_

What was the point of learning how to fight if men could still command her as they wanted?

—-

Robert threw a tourney for their wedding. 

“I’ll crown you Queen of Love and Beauty, you’ll be my Queen before you are his _._ ”Jaime promised as he fucked her the night before. 

Cersei didn’t want to be Queen of Love and Beauty, she wanted to be the tourney champion. She didn’t say that though, “I don’t have to be your Queen, I’m your sister.” she told him, as her nails dug into his back.

—-

The next day Cersei knew she needed to find a squire, someone who would keep their mouth shut and simply  _do as they were told._ Someone who would listen to her. It wasn’t hard, men were  _always_  eager to do her bidding. A smile and a laugh, and they’d trip over themselves to help her. She snagged her uncle Kevan’s squire, a simple boy who was all too eager to come when the soon-to-be queen beckoned. 

“You are going to help me into and back out of armor so I can compete in the lists today as a mystery knight.” she told him, pulling him into an unoccupied tent. 

“B-but, my lady that’s-” 

“An  _order_  and if you disobey it, I’ll see your family stripped of their lands after I kill you.” she warned. The squire paled visably. 

“Yes my lady.” he said meekly. There was no fight in this one, which suited Cersei  _just_  fine. 

He snapped her into dented steel that was likely made for a squire.  _I wish I could slip into Jaime’s golden armor._ But she and Jaime had not worn the same size clothing in years. Not since he had kept growing even after she stopped. Dented steel would suit her so long as she got to compete, and when she climbed on top of her horse dented steal felt as good gold. 

She rode hard that day, winning her matches soundly, dominating the lists along with her brother.  _It’s a shame father never let me compete against him._

At the end of the first day Cersei got her wish to be tested against her brother. 

Her heart hammered in her chest as she watched how the crowd cheered for her golden brother.  _This is it. This is when I prove that I am just as good as he is. That I am just as good a knight._ She had to win, there was just no other option. 

She didn’t think she had ever been so nervous, not when meeting Robert, or even when she had met Rhaegar. Cersei took long steadying breathes to calm herself and let the world slow. There was never anything besides her and Jaime, why should that change now? She put her spurs to her horse, and her twin did the same. Cersei’s heart stopped when they struck one another. His lance broke on her shield rocking her back in her saddle. She glanced down at her own lance it had broken as well! They were tied!

Her squire ran forward replacing her lance, and she grinned wildely under her helm. She could do this. Just two more broken lances, or better yet unseating him, and she could have him. She could win this!

Cersei put her spurs to her horse and the two ran at each other again. Jaime’s lance splintered against her shield, and she was grateful for the helm or else she surely would have lost an eye. Her lance had broken against his shield as well, she felt triumphant in that moment. She was tied with her brother. 

The moment of triumph was short lived, she ran her third pass against Jaime, he rolled his shoulder glancing the blow of her lance off his shield while his own struck true. Cersei only just managed to stay in the saddle, but that was it, Jaime won.

_Almost as good as your brother._

Disappointment gripped her heart like a vise, squeezing it painfully until she felt her eyes burn.  _No, no a lioness does not weep._

She turned her horse and rode back towards her tent. Best to get out of this armor and into silks again. Best to do as father had told her and stop playing at being a knight. 

Her squire was helping her out of the steel armor that was a little more dented for her use when her brother bust into the tent. “You ran off before I got a chance to congratulate - Cersei?!?” It was clear he hadn’t actually _looked_ at the knight when he first burst in here. It had taken him a moment to register everything. “ _You_  were riding in the tourney?! But why?”

Cersei looked to the squire in front of her, she couldn’t be  _honest_  with him there. “Go.” She snapped at him. “My brother can help me out of my armor from here on out.” She said waving him away. 

Jaime stepped to take his place even though his bright green eyes were still so very confused. “Why? I was going to win it for you,  _crown_ you, make you my queen. It’s the closest I’ll ever get to actually ever being able to do that.”

Cersei sighed as his deft fingers undid the ties of the armor. “I didn’t want to be Queen of love and beauty,” for a moment hurt flash across her twin’s face. “I wanted to  _win_. For once I wanted to be the best.” 

Jaime looked at her, he was confused till, and of course he couldn’t understand  _why_  it was never a problem for him. Jaime reached forward pulling her into his arms. “You were excellent today.” He told her. “I’ll win the tourney for the both of us.” He promised her. “Not to crown you Queen, but because I’m your  _other half_. It will be just like if you had won.”

Cersei gave him a smile, but part of her felt just a bit bitter.  _No, it won’t be._


End file.
